2 jobs. in our cover story: it could be a merry, merry end of the year for retailers. in movies and money, a new flick that's centered around a financial scandal. and why some traders are sitting it out today. first business starts now. you're watching first business: financial news, analysis, and today's investment ideas. good morning. it's thursday, september 13th. i'm angela miles. in today's first look: the fed, and the possibilty of a statement on qe3, is on the top

of traders' minds today. yesterday, the markets staged a minor rally ahead of today's rate decision from the fomc. in new york, it's decision day on the controversial proposal to regulate sugary drinks, better known as the soda ban. and shares of apple rallied about a couple of dollars higher in the after-hours session. following the release of the iphone 5, shares end the day up $9.66. larry shover of sfg alternatives joins us now. larry, what is your trade ahead of the fed, or will this market stay quite muted until there's any news later today? > > you know, i think the trade today is just to stay out of the market, because i think the market has already priced in the fact that the fomc is going to have another asset purchase program, otherwise known as qe3, so they'll printing a lot more of this- > > larry! larry, its bond buying! it's bond buying! moving on, let's go to germany now. the top court has ruled that the eurozone can move forward with its bailout plan here. can we finally say the

eurozone issues are over, or is that still in the trade? is the risk still on? > > you know, the risk with europe is still on, although they have made a great amount of progress, even yesterday, with the banking blueprint and the german ruling. but, a lot more has to be figured out, especially when it comes to spain and greece. that's something that has been hidden in the shadows, but they need to come and ask for help. that needs to be structured. but the bottom line is, they've made a very, very good first step. > > let's talk about some sector strength as well. oil was not one of them yesterday. even with the attacks in libya, it seems as though oil barely blipped. > > you know, oil did barely blip, and that was a big surprise to a lot of people. but one thing we really need to keep in mind is before the hurricane that we saw earlier in the month and earlier last month, was a lot of refineries

were shut down, and that caused an unusual spike in oil and short-term prices. so i think it's more a thing of consolidation. the market does seem to think that oil will trek higher, but the news we saw today was nothing more than headline risk and a consolidation. > > by the way, i like your big dollar bills. thanks for being on the show today. larry shover of sfg alternatives. as we mentioned earlier, the market awaits the fed's decision on another round of economic stimulus. that stimulus could include the fed buying bonds to lower long-term interest rates, which could trigger more borrowing and lending. many traders and economists are questioning whether the move can spur the recovery, since interest rates are already at record lows. the fed wraps up its two-day meeting with ben bernanke's speech later this afternoon. meanwhile on capitol hill, plans are under way for the senate to take a closer look at computer trading. it follows computer glitches, including facebook's messy ipo day at the nasdaq. today union reps will be on the hill attempting to reverse a pay freeze for federal workers.

and, republican vice presidential candidate paul ryan will take a campaign break to vote on a bill that will fund the government. reports say he is likely to support the measure to keep the government in operation for the next 6 months. yesterday, ryan released his first tv campaign ad for congress. it's airing while he's also running for vp. teachers are on strike for a fourth day in chicago. most voters support the chicago teachers' union, according to a poll. now other labor unions may join the strike in support. a janitors' union plans to add 1,500 workers to the lines on friday. about 350,000 children are unable to attend public school as a result of the strike. apple fans are giving a mixed reception to the new iphone. apple ceo tim cook presented the big reveal of the smartphone yesterday in san fransico. iphone 5 runs on a faster network, and is the tech company's lightest and thinnest smartphone to date. the device also has longer battery life, but uses a new charging system.

"for me, it doesn't really matter because i'm just happy to have a phone that works. i don't need something that is the latest and greatest, i just need something that's consisent." "the usability and accessibility of it - i think they've beaten everybody." "we thought it was pretty cool. i wish it had more new features, not stuff we've already seen." iphone 5 will sell for $199 dollars. apple will begin taking orders friday. despite the frenetic anticipation surrounding apple, samsung sells nearly twice as many smartphones globally. in our cover story, for the first time in three years, retailers are predicting more shoppers, not fewer, will visit stores during the holidays at year's end. shoppertrak, which counts the number of shoppers who visit malls and other retail locations, predicts foot traffic will be up 2.8% and retail sales up 3.3%. not exactly a shopping frenzy. "i still see a lot of caution in the consumer" what's happening is the reality of the slow economic recovery. "people are still out of work.

it's tough. they're underemployed. they're worried about their job. yet they came back for back-to-school, like we predicted, and they'll come for christmas." there are some bright spots: two extra days between thanksgiving and christmas this year and a full weekend before the holiday. hanukkah falls 11 days earlier than it did last year, which could boost revenues early. but it's also an election year, and political ads will likely replace holiday ads that begin appearing in october. "we suggest keeping ad 'powder' dry until after the election, when the consumer is ready to buy." except for apple, which may get a hefty bounce from new products, electronics stores in general may see fewer walk-in customers as online shopping for electronics increases. "the 'showrooming effect' is having an impact. people are researching online - come to a store, but then shop around for

the best price, and many do that online." online sales have been nudging above 10% for all sales, and comprising more than 40% of book and music sales. still, there may be more seasonal hiring at the mall due to the longer holiday season that includes another full weekend in-between christmas and new year's. some companies that sent call center jobs overseas are bringing those jobs back to the u.s. many call center jobs were outsourced to india and the philippines, where workers were willing to work for less pay. according to a report, at one point 30% of high tech firms sent jobs offshore. now it's closer to 12%. financial services firms are in a similar mode. "a lot of these firms moved jobs over to india and the philippines in the early 2000s to take out costs, and the reality is they found that while the costs per minute went down, the number of calls that

it took to resolve a customer complaint actually went up." that was james malick of the boston consulting group. on capitol hill, senator bob casey is pushing legislation to stop companies that outsource call centers from getting federal grants or loans. republicans call it too late. corn yields have dropped to their lowest levels since july. it's expected to be one of the lowest harvests in years, according to the agriculture department. the record heat burned off crops in the midwest. rains from hurricane isaac helped a little, but the heat returned. consumers' wallets may be hit next year as the meager harvest trickles into grocery stores and prices shoot up. prices for beef and poultry are expected to rise 4-5% next year as farmers deal with higher feed prices. you'll soon get a calorie count on your burgers, fries and shakes at mcdonald's. starting monday, the fast food chain will post calorie details on menus. next year new regulations under healthcare reform could require all major chains to list carlorie counts. mcdonald's is already out with caloric information on its food in new

york and philadelphia. a company official with the golden arches claims it's not changing customer buying habits. bmw has sold out of a special edition model. bmw's 760-li sedan has sold out. the carmaker's 25th anniversary model commemorates the 1987 model that sported a 12- cylinder engine. the car is priced at nearly $160,000. its an exclusive model, and buyers have already snapped up the 15 models in existence. in a fight for passengers, some airlines are lowering booking fees on their website. carriers are offering discounts if passengers book directly rather than through travel websites such as expedia and orbitz. frontier airlines is the latest carrier to penalize passengers for not using the frontier site. chesapeake energy is selling some of its assets to cut its debt. chesapeake will sell $6.9 billion dollars' worth of assets to royal dutch shell oil, chevron, and others in a plan to cut its debt to $9.5

billion from $14 billion. it's helping to restore trust in ceo aubrey mcclendon, who took a lot of heat for using oil wells for personal profit. shares in chesapeake have been up 50% since may. gas station owners in new jersey and pennsylvania are jacking gas prices above $9. according to philly.com, at least 50 station owners for lukoil are out with the eye-popping prices to protest what they call unfair pricing practices by lukoil north america. the website also says the vp of lukoil disagrees and blames station owners for not engaging in constructive dialogue. still to come, a movie about financial scandal hit the silver screen. will it be true to life? that's later in movies and money. but first, the power of

pictures when selling your home. that's next.

new statistics from the census bureau reveal some surprising financial facts about americans. the data found 46.2 million americans were living in poverty in 2011. that's down just barely from the year before. household wages are lower, but the bureau found fewer americans without health insurance. that number of americans fell to 15.7% last year. meanwhile, the fdic found

americans are backing off banking. the agency found around 10 million u.s. households do not have checking or savings accounts. meanwhile on the home front, are you having trouble selling your house? getting your home off the market might be a click away. kevin mcguire of vht joins us with tips on how to snap the right shot of your home. good to have you on the show today. > > thanks for having me. > > we talk a lot about curb appeal. you say picture appeal just as critical. why is that? > > in today's market everyone is searching online, and if you think about how you would search, you type in where you want to live, beds, baths, and the range you can afford. and then it's an online beauty contest. > > you brought some photos with you, including a before and after shot of a home, and that was done by, what, the homeowner? > > it was either done by the homeowner or an agent that used their own camera or and iphone

or something like that. > > and you believe you can really make a big difference. > > absolutely. it does. statistics show that during that online beauty contest, people flip through and say, "no, no, no," and suddenly they stop at the one that strikes them, and that's the one they tell their agent they want to see. > > what are you doing with your photography that the novice is not doing? > > there's work on site because of the equipment and the experience of the photographer. but then after the shoot there's post editing that's done in the studio. > > how much of a difference can somebody make in the amount of money they get from their home just because of a great shot? > > we have studies that show professional photography is showing a 13% increase in perceive value of the property. so that would equate to a $500,000 home having a perceived value of $565,000 when we show it with professional photography verses not. > > you're a pro, and i'm sure you don't want to share your secrets, but since you're on

the show, you have to give us one or two that we can take away. what do you think? > > on photography? > > absolutely. shooting homes. > > one is the equipment. a professional photographer has to have a wide-angle lens; they have to have flashes, multiple fleshes; a tripod; editing software... but then it's the experience of actually controlling all of the different lighting, the flashes, and the actual composition, the angle of the room to show the selling point. > > is it better to shoot toward the home or away? like you say, the angle. go into that a little bit more. > > there's a number of different techniques that we use, and it depends on the room. a photo shoot of a home is very different than shooting in a studio, because you deal with so many different types of lighting: you deal with natural light, florescent light, incandescent light. some rooms are dark, some rooms are very bright. so that's the difficult part about it, and after that, then you deal with the composition and the angles. > > kevin mcguire. good to have you on the show. thanks for your photography tips today. > > thank you. still ahead, box office sales hit an eleven-year low last weekend. will a film involving wall street bring up the numbers

find out next.

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[ singing scat hollywood loves movies about money. as a follow-up to both of the "wall street" films as well as "margin call" and others, a new film about the trading community is about to be in the spotlight this weekend.

erik childress, our film guy, is here. good to have you on the show. the film is called "arbitrage." will it be a winner? > > it's not getting a very big launch this weekend. it premiered at the sundance film festival, it got pretty good reviews there. i've seen it, it's a pretty good movie. it stars richard gere as this sort of wall street hotshot who has hedged a few too many of his bets, now owes $400 million into his account and has to work through a merger and a death on his hands. it's a pretty good film, but it's not getting a very wide launch like a lot of sundance films, so don't expect it to break into the top 10. > > sounds like art imitating life here, but this is definitely what our crowd will be watching for, because a lot of traders can actually repeat every word in "wall street" to you right now. > > this one is more about sort of the metaphors of wall street more than the everyday goings on. there's a lot more family stuff, and it's definitely one that's going to raise some eyebrows. its very much in the vein of "bonfire of the vanities" from way back when, so keep an eye on that.

> > do these movies tend to do well that are about money? > > well, the "wall street" movies did pretty well. the sequel did pretty well for oliver stone. "margin call" did relatively successful for being a limited range release. there's a film from a few years ago called "the company men" that had ben affleck and tommy lee jones in it. that didn't do very well. so, a lot of these films don't get the wide launch, they just come from the festivals. > > also coming out this weekend along with "arbitrage" is "finding nemo 3-d," and it's the same old "nemo," right? > > it's the same old "nemo"- > > just in 3-d. > > converted into 3-d. i expect it to do pretty well this weekend. it's hard to find anyone who is not a fan of "finding nemo." > > he's cute. > > it's a great movie too. and we saw just a year ago, "lion king 3-d" did $94 million. since then, "beauty and the beast" did about half that in january, and this is part of disney's plan that they've had since "the lion king." they've got "beauty and the beast,"

they've got this, they've got "monsters inc.," which they just moved from january into december this year to take advantage of the holidays. everyone is moving up their 3-d releases. > > they're liking the 3-d out there. the audiences are good with that. ok, "resident evil?" what about this film? > > "resident evil," i believe it's called "retribution." it's hard to keep up with the extended titles of these things. this series has been kind of a quiet little moneymaker for sony and screen gems. > > they don't screen to film critics. you have not seen this film. > > not since 2002, they haven't screened one of these films for critics, so they don't really care what we say, but the last film did almost $300 million worldwide. the series in general has done $675 million worldwide. you put one more film under their belt and you're probably looking at a billion-dollar franchise here. > > they're big winners. good to have you on the show today. that's erik childress. thanks for helping us out. up next, an energy drink company is in play in chart talk.

matt cavanaugh of cmz trading is up bright and early with us today to talk about an energy drink maker, monster beverage. good morning to you. > > good morning.

> > what do you think about the chart on this stock? it looks a little rocky. the stock was slammed yesterday. > > you know, they've had a rough couple of months. they were trading up near $80 earlier in the summer. they had a little bit of a miss on their earnings side, but they've really had pressure here on the government side. you had the new york attorney general coming out and saying they wanted to investigate some of the health claims in their marketing, and also we had senators durbin and blumenthal come out yesterday saying that they wanted to investigate energy drinks and their health benefits or lack thereof. so, the stock looks a little bit weak here, but i don't think it's for anything other than those concerns. you look at it, it's about a 28 times price-to-earnings ratio, 21 times forward-earnings. it's a little bit expensive, but it's not nearly as expensive as it once was, and this really is a great growth stock. > > do you believe there is enough demand, enough people out there drinking energy drinks to make this stock pop? > > absolutely. if you look at their earnings numbers, their

quarter two sales were up like 23%. they beat red bull. they were the leader in their industry. and don't forget that they're expanding into other places like asia and south america. so, if you look at how this stock has grown over the last 10 or 15 years, you'll see this has been a great growth story, and i think that you might be getting an opportunity to buy this stock on sale. > > matt cavanaugh of cmz trading. thank you matt. > > thanks. that closes out our show for today. coming up tomorrow, it's traders unplugged. our trader offer clues into what energy stocks are high on thier list. from all of us at first business, thanks for watching. we hope you join us tomorrow.

. good morning, we have breaking news, another storm, the steps the american military is now taking. and the connection another violent incident in a different part of the city. 8 unusual accidents at the same home. the dramatic scene in fremont, it is all ahead on the ktvu channel 2 morning news.

complete bay area news coverage starts right now this is ktvu channel 2 morning news. good morning, thank you for joining us this morning september 13th, it feels like the weather is warming up. >> you are pretty savvy there pam. and i will tell you similar to what is going on in the summer, antioch is 94, here is sal. good morning traffic is moving a long well in the bay area as we go to some of the shots we have westbound 24, it looks pretty good as you drive from walnut creek to oakland no major problems along the way. this is a look at the san mateo bridge and we will have fewer planes coming into fso and that means fewer delays, let's go back to pam. >>we